Here We Go: Two Transgender Men Are Raising a ‘Gender-Neutral’ Baby Whom They Say Will Pick a Gender When Older

December 10, 2018

The father of a 22-month-old says in a new video that he and his partner are raising their child gender-neutral and will let the child choose a gender when older.

They named the child “Zo.”

“We use ‘they’ pronouns for Zo,” the father, Nathan Levitt, says in a new video for TicToc, a Bloomberg Twitter feed. “We felt like there are so many gender stereotypes that get put on kids. From the second they’re born, the question is, ‘Is it a boy or a girl?’ And then so many decisions are made from that. … Are you going to buy pink clothes or blue clothes? Do they play with trucks or with dolls?

“And we felt we really want, as best as we can, to have our child not have those stereotypes put on them. And our child to have the openness to identity as whatever gender they want to whenever they feel that’s right for them.”

Levitt and his husband identify as transgender men.

When strangers ask Levitt or his husband “is it a boy or a girl?” they often respond, “We don’t know yet. We’re waiting for Zo to tell us.”

“We are preparing for whatever Zo might say and however Zo might identify, knowing that might change,” Levitt says. “So there might be a time where Zo says. ‘I don’t feel like a ‘they.’ I feel like a ‘she’ or I feel like a ‘he.’”